𝘾 𝙖 𝙡 𝙢 🌼 A Pocket Guide To Breathe Easy

☀️ About This Pocket Guide ☀️

🧡 Blurb 🧡

Name a negative emotion. This guide discusses the Zen Buddhist method to calm it.

Each chapter focuses on a negative feeling, a hurtful action, or a cause for despondency. I hope this guide helps you to breathe a little easier!

☀️ Schedule ☀️

This pocket guide will be updated once every Sunday until its completion.

🌼 Foreword 🌼

Buddhism is something a lot of Westerners don't know about. Springing to mind are words like "nirvana," gold statues of fat laughing buddhas, and monks meditating deep in clouded temples.

Interestingly, nirvana (by name) doesn't play a major role in Zen Buddhist thought. It is not Buddhist heaven. Nirvana is heaven on earth, our happiness to be had right this very moment!

As for fat laughing buddhas, that idea sprouts from a pseudo-historical figure who lived long after the historical buddha Shakyamuni, who himself lived around 500 BCE.

Monks meditating in temples? Buddhism, like any religion, has various sects. Most Buddhists agree that meditation is very important, but many Mahayana Buddhists (which include Zen Buddhists) believe that compassion and human interaction is more important.

Teaching the art of compassion is the most important thing a Zen Buddhist can do. And it's hard to teach if you never speak to anyone!

Zen Buddhism, and Buddhism generally, is a religion founded on reason. No leap of faith is asked of you. Nor is there any notion of "true belief." A Buddhist studies reality and challenges conceptions. Therefore, the advice in this pocket guide is based on reason, not scripture and not mysticism.

That is not to say that Zen Buddhism isn't subtle. It is, which is why Buddhism is so often conflated with mysticism. However, Zen thought isn't merely subtle; it is hard and clear like a diamond. Buddhism is fearless.

This guide is not intended to be a replacement for personalized or professional help. This guide is intended to edify you, to support you. It suggests the way a Zen Buddhist might deal with painful issues, in hopes some of that the information might be useful to you on your journey. I wish you all the happiness in the world!

🧡 Mysty